Fiat Ducato 35 SH1 MultiJet 130

There are some big rumblings going on in the Fiat Professional camp at the moment as a whole set of new vans are about to erupt onto the scene. The Scudo medium van is being replaced with a reworked Renault Trafic, there will be a new pick-up truck based on the Mitsubishi L200 and the Doblo Cargo and Fiorino are getting a wash and brush up. What with the Ducato’s recent facelift, Fiat is replacing and upgrading its entire range in the space of two years. The Ducato comes off the same production line as the Citroen Relay and Peugeot Boxer at Sevel in Italy but the Ducato gets its own engines, which are a tad more frugal than those of its twin brothers, making it cheaper to run over the course of its life. So what exactly is new in Ducatoland? There’s a fresh front end for starters which really gives this van a snazzy look and the cab has been upgraded with a new dash and – wait for it – coffee cup holders for the first time. Wooo! The rear end is as-is – nothing wrong with that, we say – and under the metal a few tweaks sharpen up the Ducato’s capabilities and promise to raise body rigidity, improve durability and lower noise levels. Meanwhile some of the high stress areas such as sliding side doors have been beefed up to improve their longevity. Our test van was the short wheelbase model with eight cubic feet of loadspace on offer and a payload of 1,640kg. The 2.3-litre diesel range has 110bhp, 130bhp and 150bhp outputs on offer. Ours was the mid-ranger.